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Hi Frank,
Welcome to the forum Great capture. Lots of detail in the night sky and I like how the core interacts with the totem pole.
Did you use low level lighting to illuminate the foreground?
Welcome to NPN Frank! A wonderful first image. Funny, we’ve been discussing the Trial membership among other things. So glad you decided to check it out.
This is a wonderful rendition of the Milky Way and combined with the landscape. You didn’t mention any technicals or circumstance, but I’m gonna guess that the landscape and tower are lit by car head lamps? Doesn’t really matter the source, and I think you did well - not over done and a just about the right amount of light on the sandstone to see it, but not overtake the Milky Way and starry sky. Having said that, if it were mine, I would burn down the lower right area and maybe even the mound a little to balance out the light a little more; in other words, try and keep the eye more on the tower formation than the base.
I’m a novice when it comes to night photography, but will say you’ve got a great looking night sky, stars, and I even see a shooting star in there. Cool.
Great job with this. Oh, the clouds on the horizon - icing on the cake.
Only other suggestion, don’t be shy about including any technical, what kind of feedback you’re looking for, etc. The more info, the better the comments and critiques. And also, if you’re just looking to share and don’t wan’t any critique, have a look at the Landscape Gallery, where we don’t critique. Yeah, lot’s to explore and learn on this site.
Welcome,
Lon
thanks for your comments!
yes, lot’s to explore and learn on this site. just beginning! i think i used the wrong download site. i want all comments folks are willing to give.
Great Image Frank. You’re processing of the milky way looks quite natural. The only thing I would add is the orange in the clouds seems a bit over saturated to me I might just take the saturation in them down a bit.
This is a beautiful image with a really good composition. That is, there is a good balance between sky and land. The red clouds give the image an artistic flare in my opinion. I’m not a big fan of spotlight nightscape illumination but for those who do I think you did an admirable job with the lighting. I prefer side lighting from a full moon.
It would be helpful also if you would provide a verbal introduction to your image, including basic image specs. I would guess this to be a 30 second exposure.
thank you all for your kind words and comments. very helpful!
20 sec exposure 16 mm iso 1600 2.8
Welcome to NPN Frank! Very nice image with good processing, everything looks nice and balanced color and light wise. If this were mine, I would crop it to a 2:1 pano as I feel the upper portion of the frame isn’t adding anything with the empty sky.
It might be the jpeg compression, but it looks like you might need to do a bit of color noise reduction as well.
I really like this image Frank and as others have said it has a nice balance to it. That said, I like David’s crop suggestion as I feel it strengthens the composition.
Welcome, Frank! I’m echoing @David_Kingham’s comments on the crop and color noise. Where the core of the Milky Way is such a prominent feature in the night sky (and something not everyone gets to see), it tends to become a very eye-catching part of the composition. I think you did well balancing it with the totem pole–just a bit to much “empty” space in the top of the original photo.
The only other thing I’d add is that it looks like you may have done some selective adjustment to the core of the Milky Way, almost as if you used a wide adjustment brush from the top of the totem and down the right over the core. My apologies if I’m wrong about that, since I know different conditions can give the Milky Way a slightly different look or glow. If I’m right in that assumption, it looks like that adjustment brightened not only the more luminous parts of the core, but also the darker dust lanes. Bringing those dust lanes down just a touch could help show the structure of the Milky Way a bit more.
